In Plain Sight

As
I lay hiding,
confiding
to no one
and no thing,
the remnants of past selves
bring
me pain
inside the heart
I pretend is my brain
is a boy,
so scared
to share himself
with a world
that seems so hard,
harsh,
and yet the metal
I think I see
outside of myself
is actually inside me,
within each reverie,
each dream,
every intent,
all waves,
one sea,
three of me,
the man before,
the one now,
and the one yet to be,
we three
have a responsibility
to each other
and to me,
the man with tears in every lie,
every half-truth,
every story
I’ve ever told,
or held,
or allowed to meld
inside the blood
that runs through every vein
in my heart,
so big,
so small,
insignificant,
but aren’t we all,
I ask myself
in half jest
lest I come to believe
that the pain I love
will never leave
and that the man I thought I was becoming
was the same figment,
the same mirage
in a lifetime full of dreams
and expectations
that go unfulfilled,
because I won’t fill them.